2017 was my best year ever when it comes to training. A great, great time.
The obvious first difference to the earlier years was starting barbell training. In a commercial gym. I wanted to focus on the barbell, so I did less kettlebell training, and in the end even loaned my kettlebells away so they could be of more use to someone. I haven't trained with the kettlebells for over nine months. The barbell training turned into an interest in powerlifting pretty quickly. It may be, that after all these years, I've found my sport.
The second thing that stuck was a more profound appreciation and interest for programming.
The third thing that I think had a good effect on my training was starting a training journal and making it public and my training open to criticism. It forces me to be more objective and accountable. And reading the log after a while really puts things in perspective.
The fourth thing that I find good, which also has something to do with the log, is recording my training on video. The videos are about as honest as it gets. I get to see if I squat deep enough and how I move with the lifts. It's easier to correct issues after seeing them on video. I also get to compare my lifts from earlier on to how I do them later, and with notes I can understand what works and what doesn't. And the videos are the best way to get feedback from other people. Even if they saw the lift happen, a video is something where it's far easier to concentrate on it and you can watch it as many times as possible and concentrate on observing different parts of technique. And videos make it really easy to get feedback from all the great people who can't get to see you lift in the gym, like all my strong training partners here.
For the fifth thing, I think my back has gotten better. I've had back aches my whole adult life, regardless of how I trained bodyweight or with kettlebells. With the caveat of how I trained with them, of course. Still, the back has been bothering me whenever I did some little menial tasks like shovelling the snow, washing dishes, doing the hoovering, etc. Something where I have to round my back for a while. The barbell training has greatly improved my back. It's not perfect, and I'm not sure if it ever will be, but I'm grateful for all the improvements I've made with it. I'm not sure if it's residual tension or midsection strength or hypertrophy or all of them or something else totally, but something I've been doing has worked.
For the sixth, and last thing, I like to think that I've gotten stronger. Stronger than I've ever been. Maybe even "strong" as it is, that I could think of myself as being reasonably strong. I've made the most progress in the least amount of time ever in my life. It's great in and out of the gym.
For 2018, I'm going to keep the ship on course and I eagerly look forward to the treasures the distant shores will bring.
